The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

One of the two rods I picked up on saturday was an A.E. Rudge "The Derwent". A big beefy 12' 4" thing (odd size?). Great quality fittings, lovely long handle, complete with secondry tapered cork handle and a containment ring, to stop the reel bands sliding to far down. The ferruls look, to my inexperienced eye, as being nickle silver, and they're spiggoted as well as reinforced. Can anyone shed any light on this maker? Thought on quality, when and where made etc.?

http://www.inthenetuk.com/pages/Vintage ... _Rudge.asp

Another Redditch maker there are a few of their shorter game rods on ebay

Well this is the Rudge "The Derwent". It is in pretty good order neading only a re-whip on the butt guide and a rub down and another coat of varnish all over. Any clues to which colour thread I need to re-do the butt? My guess is Talbot but I'll bow to more experienced opinions.

Another nice acquisition. As with many other rods, what would have been a bright blue has dulled down a lot.

It might actually be that the silk was black, but the colour has deteriorated to a blue over time. Many early black dies seem to have been achieved with green or blue in them.

Equally so many blues and greens go practically black when they get sealed ....since that rod is so original I guess you better go for a black to match the rest?

I reckon it was probably blue originally, Nobby. I understand what you are saying about black fading out but that would surely lead to lighter and darker areas depending on sunlight exposure. The colour of this blue is so consistent that would seem unlikely. If you look at that bottom picture it seems like an aquamarine type blue. Whatever I do it in I know it's not going to match but I should be able to colour balance it a bit with a tinted polish seal, if needed.

Perhaps Rudge got their blue silk from the same place as Edgar Sealey? That all went black too.


I wonder how dark the French Navy from Pipers would go?

http://www.pipers-silks.com/UsefulTools ... sSilks.htm

Interesting link. Are there advantages to using silk over the more modern nylon (apart from it being more original)?

I can just picture how good that's going to look when your done Haydn.......looking forward to the finished atricle pal.

SK :hat:

The Sweetcorn Kid wrote:I can just picture how good that's going to look when your done Haydn.......looking forward to the finished atricle pal.

SK :hat:

Seconded. :thumb: